Basic sub swap question

Ricardo · September 2013

I think this might be might first post in the car audio section. Need some help from the experts.

I recently got a Sonata turbo with Navigation; it has the Dimension sound system. Nothing to write home about and I might be making some changes. It's a lease so need to be careful with what I do.

But for now I want to try swapping the stock sub just to see if there's any change. It has a free air woofer in the rear deck. It's a dual voice coil, 2ohm sub, powered by the stock amp (supposed to be 360 watts, feeds all speakers).

I have a Critical Mass sub that I read somewhere is great for IB/Free Air applications; same size (8"), so I want to swap it just to see if there's any improvement; also 2 ohms, but only one voice coil. I am not looking to rattle my neighbor's windows. Just see if I can get some better bass. Adding a separate sub amp is an option but first I want to try the direct swap.

So here's my noobie question. How do I connect it being single coil? Do I just pick one of the wire pairs or is it possible to bridge them somehow? I'm sure the Critical Mass will take a lot more power than the stock woofer, but I don't want to fry anything.

Thanks!!!

Eocuph · September 2013

How is the stock sub currently wired? Serial at 4 ohms or parallel at 1 ohm? If its at 1 ohm, then you won't be getting as much output out of the CM (amazing sub btw) and if its wired at 4 ohms then you will get more output out of the amp but you are taking the chance of frying the amp by running it at 2 ohm (only way to wire a svc 2 ohm sub).

Another option (if you want to keep the current amp) is replace with another D4 ohm sub with larger cone area (diff box). Or t-line it.

Now if you want to replace the amp, you really should replace the small power and ground wire. If you don't want to rerun the wire, then you can add add a small battery in the trunk and makesure to keep an eye on the voltage. Good battery brands-xs power, odyssey,stinger.

If I was you, I'd rerun all new wire, new amp, and new sub. If you're one of those sq guys (common in home audio folks) but also like a decent amount of output check out SSA xcon, fi Q, sound splinter, image dynamics, focal, hertz etc

For a good sq amp, check out arc audio, hertz, audison etc

If you have any additional questions let me know.

Btw I'm a car audio guy somewhat switching to home audio. Will be selling my non working polk rt3000p powered subs and adding a powered subwoofer amp for my 2004 re audio **** 18. Will be ran with my cs1000p and f/x1000's- Sound amazing!

Ricardo · September 2013

Eoucuph, thanks for taking the time to answer.

Let's see. I have not measured each coil's impedance in the stock sub because connections are soldered.

I have a diagram of the audio system (Amazing amount of info on Hyundai tech site). Here's the section for the woofer. It seems to me that each coil has its own channel from the amp; all speakers are 2 ohms so I would assume each coil is 2 ohm? So I could just pick the wires from one of the coils and connect it to my 2 ohm SVC woofer?

Understand all the amps stuff and need to rewire. I just want to leave that as the last option.

Ricardo · September 2013

Anyone?????

Basic sub swap question

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